Blowing Our Own Horn Department:

KIDD, KENNETH AND MICHELLE ANN ABATE, eds. Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature. University of Michigan Press, 2011 420p Trade ed. 978-0-4720-7146-3 $95.00 Paper ed. ISBN 978-0-4720-5146-5 $45.00

GSLIS professor and former CCB director Christine Jenkins contributes a chapter, "Young Adult Novels with Gay/Lesbian Characters and Themes: A Historical Reading of Content, Gender, and Narrative Distance," to this collection of essays on LGBTQ topics in children's literature. Jenkins builds upon previous research to identify significant gay/lesbian content and/or themes in over sixty books and examines their portrayals of gay/lesbian characters, gender representation, and narrative distance.

MCDOWELL, KATE AND CAROLINE NAPPO "Evolution in Children's Science Books: Recommendations and Library Collections, 1863-1956." Library Trends 60.4 (Spring, 2012): 655-674.

GSLIS professor, CCB affiliate, and former Bulletin reviewer Kate McDowell and co-author Nappo draw on the Main Street Public Library (MSPL) database of the collections of five small Midwest public libraries to explore and analyze trade books about evolution that were published and recommended to young people from 1863 to 1956, investigating the ways in which evolution was characterized for young people and how the descriptions changed over time.

The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books, 2012 Edition. ALA Editions, 2012 184p Paper ed. 978-0-8389-3601-6 $30.00

The latest edition of the annual guide to the Newbery and Caldecott awards includes a new essay by Bulletin editor and CCB director Deborah Stevenson chronicling the Newbery's coverage in the media over the years, from the fanfare of its inception through colorful details about various award winners to the touchstone it is today. The book itself includes an easy-to-use format and bibliographic citations and indexes for all past and present award winners and honorees.

Also of note:

Bulletin reviewer Karen Coats gave the keynote address at the Asian Conference on Arts and Culture at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok this past August. Her talk was entitled "The Arts of the Cradle, the Cradle of the Arts."